On Sun, 1 Mar 2020 11:25:34 -0800 (PST), Christopher Tidy
wrote:

Hi folks,

I've been experimenting with heat treatment and have tried bending annealed HSS, partly out of curiousity.

I've tried annealing and bending blunt drills and hacksaw blades, but with little success. They seem brittle even after bringing them up to an orange-red heat and letting them cool in the air.

Should it be possible to bend annealed HSS? Do I need to bring them up to a higher temperature, cook them for longer or bury them in sand for really slow cooling?

Thanks,

Chris
Bending hot usually works best.
However annealing HSS requires cooling it VERY slowly - minimum 1
hour from cherry red to comfortablle to the touch. Usually done by a
blacksmith by burying it in hot ashes and letting it cool.

Try putting red hot part in 600 degree oven then turn down to 400,
then 300, then shut off over a period of an hour and see what happens.
If you can't easily cut it with a file it's not annealed.